Test clips are used to temporarily connect to the leads of IC (integrated circuit) devices. High density circuits are generally in the form of flat packages having a rectangular body and multiple leads extending from two or four sides of the body to the circuit board. Present test clip used rows of individual contacts, each stamped or photo-fabricated to small tolerances. Each contact is placed in an individual slot of a plastic housing which separates adjacent contacts by thin barriers.
IC devices are becoming available with greater number of leads, with the pitch size, or distance between the centers of adjacent leads, becoming increasingly smaller. Such smaller IC devices enable the production of smaller sophisticated electronic devices. IC devices are currently available with fifty leads on each of four sides, having a 0.5 mm (0.02 inch) lead pitch side and it is expected that IC devices will soon be available with lead pitch sizes of 0.4 mm and 0.3 mm. As the pitch size decreases, the size and tolerances of the very thin contacts and of the insulator barrier walls between adjacent contacts, becomes extremely small. There is a question as to whether present technology can be used to produce reliable test clips for such IC devices even at high prices. The problem is compounded by the fact that existing IC devices as well as recently announced new ones are not well standardized. A test clip which could be manufactured at moderate cost to reliably engage the leads of IC devices having leads spaced at very small pitch sizes, would be of considerable value in the testing of IC circuit devices.